SIS awards first Walter Sherwin fellowship
By Matty Getty

(From American Weekly, Nov. 14, 2006)

Claudia Rodríguez-Alas recently won the School of International Service’s (SIS) first Walter Sherwin IDP Award for Academic

Claudia Rodríguez-Alas accepts SIS’s first Walter Sherwin Award. Photo by Jeff Watts

Excellence and Community Service. Named in honor of Sherwin’s 27-year USAID career and funded by gifts from his family, the fellowship awards Rodríguez-Alas $5,000 for studies toward her master’s degree in international development.

“It’s really special in many ways,” said Rodríguez-Alas, who received the award during a ceremony that included a speech from Sherwin’s widow, Kitty Sherwin. “It’s not just the funding, but also what it means to get an award bearing the name of a man who dedicated his life to service and international development.”

In addition to his USAID work in Africa, where he helped design and manage development projects that ranged from health care to well drilling, Sherwin volunteered as a reader for the blind and dyslexic before dying in 2006. Each year the Sherwin award will go to a graduate student in international development who has no other fellowship and who has completed at least 18 credits while maintaining an excellent academic and service record.

In her second year of master’s work, Rodríguez-Alas is focusing her studies on the economic impact immigrants from Latin American have on their home countries. After earning her master’s degree she plans to work for an organization that helps immigrants send funds back to their home country.

The award, she says, will help provide inspiration toward that goal. “By receiving this prize I am committing myself to follow Mr. Sherwin’s example,” she told Kitty Sherwin on accepting the award.